Mark Pope

Mark Edward Pope (born September 11, 1972) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the nineteenth and current head coach of the Brigham Young University men's basketball team.

In college, he played two years for the Washington Huskies, and earned Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honors in 1992 after setting a freshman single-season school record with 8.1 rebounds per game.

After two seasons with the Huskies, Pope transferred to the Kentucky Wildcats.

After sitting out the 1993–94 season due to NCAA transfer rules, Pope appeared in every game for the Wildcats over the next two seasons, winning two SEC championships.

Pope was also a team captain on the 1995–96 Wildcats team that won an NCAA championship, averaging 7.6 points in 20.3 minutes per game.

He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats, where he was part of the Wildcats' 1996 NCAA championship team, and the Washington Huskies, where he was the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year.

He later played professionally in the National Basketball Association for the Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets.

Pope played at Newport High School in Bellevue, Washington.

Following his college career, Pope was a second round pick for the Indiana Pacers in the 1996 NBA draft.

Pope played six seasons in the NBA for the Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Denver Nuggets.

His playing career ended in 2005.

In 2006, Pope enrolled in medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City.

In 2009, he left medical school and joined Mark Fox's coaching staff at the University of Georgia as director of basketball operations for the 2009–10 season.

Fox was an assistant coach when both were at Washington.

The following season (2010–11), Pope moved to Wake Forest to serve as an assistant under Jeff Bzdelik.

From 2011 to 2015, Pope was an assistant under Dave Rose at BYU.

In four years, Pope helped the Cougars to four-straight 20-win seasons and four-straight postseason appearances—including three bids to the NCAA Tournament and trip to the semifinals of the 2013 NIT.

In 2015, Pope was hired as head coach of the men's basketball team at Utah Valley University (UVU).

In four years at UVU (2015-19), Pope’s teams made improvements each season, going from 12 wins in 2015-16 to 25 victories in 2018-19.

The team was projected to be a lock for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, which would have been their first berth since 2015.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the tournament and prematurely ended the successful season.

BYU ended the season at No. 18 in the AP Poll and No. 16 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

He also led the Wolverines to three-straight postseason appearances (2017, 2018, 2019) and back-to-back 20-win seasons (2017-18, 2018-19).

On April 10, 2019, Pope was hired to replace Dave Rose as BYU's 19th men's basketball head coach, after Rose's retirement.

In his first season, Pope led the Cougars to a 24-8 record, the most wins for a first-year coach in program history.

He became just the second first-year BYU coach to lead his team into the top 25 and the first to end his debut season ranked.

The Cougars entered the top 25 as No. 23 in the AP Poll on Feb. 17 and jumped to as high as No. 14.

In league play, Pope guided the Cougars to a record of 13-3, second in the West Coast Conference (WCC).

The 13 wins – which included a 91-78 victory over No. 2 Gonzaga in the Marriott Center – were a tie for the most by BYU during their time in the WCC.

Gonzaga was the highest-ranked team BYU has defeated in the history of the Marriott Center.

The Cougars finished the regular season on a nine-game win streak, the team's longest win streak in WCC play.

BYU boasted one of the most efficient offenses in the nation in 2019-20, evidenced by top 5 national rankings in several statistical categories.

The Cougars finished the season ranked No. 1 in 3-point field goal percentage, No. 2 in assist/turnover ratio, No. 3 in field goal percentage, No. 4 in 3-point field goals per game and No. 5 in assists per game.

In addition to the national rankings, BYU set program records for 3-point field goals in a single-game, 3-point field goals in a single season and 3-point field goals per game for a season.

In addition to the team success, three players earned All-WCC First Team honors in Yoeli Childs, T.J. Haws, and Jake Toolson.

Childs also earned first-team All-District honors from the USBWA and NABC and was a Senior CLASS Award second-team All-American.

Haws earned a spot on the CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team and Toolson was named the WCC Newcomer of the Year.

Pope's early success with the Cougars continued in 2020-21.

BYU finished 10-3 in WCC play.

The team reached the finals of the WCC Tournament, losing to Gonzaga, 88-78, in the championship.